Unlucky Winner Is…

Unlucky Winner Is… Episode Reviews

Brief: Rodney’s won a holiday for three in the Mediterranean courtesy of Del and the Megaflakes drawing competition. The only snag is he’s got to pretend he’s fourteen years old all week. Should be a doodle – all he’s got to do is keep his head down. Then the skateboarding and breakdancing competitions begin…and Trudy willing to wait.

Del has entered every competition on the market, trying to win as many freebies as possible.

Rodney has unknowingly been entered for an art competition, and won it. It’s only when he arrives at the 5 star hotel in Mallorca that he learns he was a schoolboy when he composed the winning painting, and has won the under-15 category.

While Del and Cassie enjoy playing mum and dad, Rodders has to endure the Fun Bus, chaotic children, and becoming a lifelong member of The Groovy Gang.

He has the last laugh, however, as Del’s tinkering with his passport makes them ineligible to claim Rodney’s winning ticket on the Spanish lottery.

Episode Observations

In The Unlucky Winner Is… in the book “the only fools and horses story” the picture of rodney in his skateboard gear shows him wearing different clothes to that of the episode “

In The Unlucky Winner Is… rodney’s painting entered for the mega flakes competition is called “marble arch at dawn” but in the episode “A royal flush” del and rodney talk about the painting that was entered and they call it “marble arch at dusk”

In The Unlucky Winner Is… when rodney first finds out he has to spend his entire week in majorca as a 14 year old this is also mentioned in episodes “jolly boys outing” where rodney is on the phone and in “time on our hands”when they all walked into success!.

In The Unlucky Winner Is… The “doctored” passports – as Cassandra was posing as Del’s wife, then her passport needed to have been changed from Miss Cassandra Parry to Mrs Cassandra Trotter – and yet when her’s is examined, nothing is mentioned; either it should have revealed that Del had changed the name to Trotter (which would have annoyed Cassandra, the same as it did Rodney when he found out his DOB had been altered), or if it wasn’t changed then the holiday reps should have queried why her passport had her maiden, and not her married name.

In The Unlucky Winner Is… when Albert and Del are reading the letter that Rodney recieves from Megaflakes,Del hands Albert all the relevant paperwork then you can distinctly see that Del still has one sheet in his hand when Albert gives him back the other sheet when Albert says”have you read the other page?”.

In The Unlucky Winner Is… When Rodney and Del are sitting on the balcony and cassandra has gone to get Rodney a drink, if you look in the glass door you can see cassandra’s reflection with the drink waiting for her cue.

In The Unlucky Winner Is… during one of the scenes in their hotel room, just after Del leaves for a walk round the town, Cassandra snuggles up to Rodney and seems very interested in his ‘uniforms’ fantasy. However, in the Christmas special two years later, (Miami Twice), she seems to have a very different opinion about the same fantasy, shown during the conversation outside in the Nags Head car park (“If it’s got anything to do with uniforms the answer’s no”). Obviously a very fickle lady!

In The Unlucky Winner Is… while in the airport the same guy walks past 3 times wearing different clothes.

In The Unlucky Winner Is… Rodney’s birthday comes under scrutiny again. He claims to be “a 26 year old man who has just come second in a skateboard derby”. This means he was born in 1962 or 1963, which makes him a teenager in “Big Brother” when the series started in 1981. But as others have pointed out, he was 23 in “Big Brother”, which should have made 31 in “The Unlucky Winner Is…”

In The Unlucky Winner Is… Del doctors his passport in biro “to make it look like Rodney was born in 1974”. How on earth can you change 62 or 63 to 74 and make it NOT look doctored, bearing in mind the above proves he was born in 1962 or 1963.